A Government Post in the Underworld: I Manage Performance Reviews for Mummies in Ancient Tombs

The day Li Mo was laid off, he received a text message: “Underworld civil service position, five types of insurance and a housing fund, priority after death. Click to sign.” Thinking it was a scam, he tapped it without a second thought. When he opened his eyes again, he was in the Underworld’s Field Operations Department. His ID badge bore two words: Pending. First assignment: Give the Millennium Zongzi King a performance review. The Zongzi King fell to his knees. Second assignment: Pitch a proposal to the Ghost Emperor, his client. The Ghost Emperor signed off. Third assignment: Stay alive. The Underworld was going public, the King of Hell wanted to reincarnate, and costs had to be cut and efficiency improved by thirty percent. Everyone in Field Operations was marked Pending. But Li Mo discovered that on the day Project B20 launched, all field operatives would be sealed inside tombs and go public alongside the old King of Hell. He had three days to find out who the next King of Hell would be. Otherwise, the entire Underworld, ghosts and humans alike, would be wiped out in one fell swoop. Ghosts weren’t scary, and tombs weren’t scary. What was scary was having to clock in, write weekly reports, and align on granular details inside a tomb. An unofficial Underworld employee, going mad online.